Armored helmet



April 1940- P. 1.. CROSBY 2,197,174

ARHORED HELMET Filed June 6, 1938 J91": L. CF05]? i Patented Apr. 16, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT oer-ice ARMORED HELMET Percy L. Crosby, McLean, Va. .Application June 6, 1938, Serial No. 212,155

3 Claims.

by direct contact of the fragments, but also avoiding the shock that is incident to the sudden stop-' ping of a rapidly moving body.

Heretofore it has been proposed to protect persons heads against flying shrapnel fragments and the like by the use of helmets that depend for their protective effect solely upon the strength and rigidity of their walls. Such helmets have included rigid crowns, quite rigidly secured in position upon the wearers heads. The users of such helmets have been subjected to the shocks incident to the stopping of flying missiles impinging upon the surfaces of the helmets, and since shrapnel fragments and other missiles of war often travel at high speed and have great momentum, such users have often been severely injured by the impact of missiles upon the relatively rigid structures even though protected against actual contact by the missiles.

Helmets of these already known types have depended for their protective effect upon the strength of the walls alone, and consequently, when struck by a missile having a momentum greater than that which the wall of the halmet could resist, the wall would be penetrated by the missile, and the wearer subjected to the direct impact of such missile.

The helmet of the present invention is designed to provide a crown that is unstable with respect to the head of the wearer, such crown being readily moved by the impact of an impinging missile, whereby the surface that is struck by a missile will be moved to assume such an angular relation to the direction of motion of the missile that the latter will glance from the surface rather than be stopped by the wall of the helmet, or penetrate such wall.

The chief object of the present invention is to provide an armored helmet having an unstable crown arranged in a novel manner to permit it to move freely under the impact of a flying missile, to cause the surface of the crown to assume such an angle as to permit the missile to glance from the surface and be deflected from its direction of motion.

Another object is to provide a novel form of helmet that will adequately protect the wearer from injury by flying missiles, yet which will be light in weight and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture. I

In the accompanying drawing: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the helmet with the parts disassembled. Y

Figure 2 is a perspective View of the helmet.

Figure 3 is a perspective view indicating the assembled manner in which the helmet acts under the impact'of a flying missile to cause the latter to-be '1 deflected and to glance from the surface of the helmet.

Figure 4 is a broken detail view.

Describing the drawing more particularlyflthe brim of the helmet is designated 5. The brim may be generally oval in shape and has a central opening 6 from which it extends outwardly and downwardly to afford protection to the face of the wearer from missiles approaching do-wnwardly from above, as shrapnel fragments.

The interior of the brim is provided with means for. supporting the helmet upon the head of the user, such means here being shown as a padded head-band 7. arranged that the brim is at all points spaced from the head, and the padding is arranged to protect the head as much as possible from the shock of missiles that impinge upon the brim 5.

The crown 8 of the helmet covers the opening 6 of the brim, said crown having a lower edge 9 that rests freely upon the upper surface of the brim 5 surrounding the opening 6, when the helmet is in assembled condition as shown in Figure l 2 of the drawing. This engagement of the edge of the crown upon theupper surface of the brim constitutes the entire support for the crown portion of the helmet.

Advantageously the crown 8 is conical in shape since this shape not only afiords a Wall structure that is extremely strong and resistant to defor-- mation and penetration, but is also characterized by a total absence of flat or gradually curved surface area upon which a missile might impinge at a right angle, and its surface is not only curved at all points, but also presents a surface that is at an angle to both the vertical and the horizontal due to its convergence, while its surface area is relatively small.

, From the above, it will be seen that this helmet comprises a brim that is to be supported upon The head-engaging device is so' the head of the wearer, and a conical crown freely supported upon the upper surface of the brim and covering the head. When a flying object strikes will readily move and yield to the impact, turning in such a manner as to present a surface at an obtuse angle to the direction of motion of the object, and the latter will be deflected, glancing from the surface. The missile, being deflected rather than stopped, its full energy will not be expended against the wall of the helmet.

In order to prevent the crown portion 8 from being knocked completely off of the brim and away from the wearer, and to hold it in its proper position upon the brim during normal wear, resil-' ient means are provided for yieldingly holding the crown upon the brim. Such means, in order. to retain the advantages of the freely movable crown, must be of such nature as to yield readily to a shock or blow upon the crown, and are here at one end to the crown and at the other end to the brim inside of the crown. The springs Ii] are of sufficient strength to hold the crown in proper position upon the brim during normal wear, but are of sufiicient length and resilience to permit the crown to move freely in response to a blow against its surface.

A convenient method of assembling the springs II! with the other portions of the helmet is shown in Figure 1, wherein the springs are secured at their lower ends to the brim 5 at intervals about the edge of the crown, and the upperends of the said springs are provided with stud elements H of snap fastenersythe sockets I2 of which are secured to the inner surface of the crown 8.

To further enhance the action of the helmet in presenting a surface that will move and cause a missile to glance off, the outer surface of the helmet is preferably made as smooth as possible. The outer surface of both the brim and the crown may, for this reason, be highly polished and they may be rendered slippery by coating them with oil or other slippery substance prior to go-.

ing into action.

Obviously, the helmet may be made. of any tough and strong, and preferably light, alloy or metal, and advantageously the material chosen will be such that the outer surface of the helmet.

struction, operation and many advantages of the invention Will be apparent without further description to those skilled in the art, and it will be appreciated that changes in the proportions and minor details may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention;

What I claim is: 1. Arr-armored helmet comprising a brim having an opening therein, means for supporting the brim on the head of a wearer with the opening above said head, a separate crown normally said means being extensible to permit the crown I to move upon the brim-when subjected to impact.

2. An armored helmet in accordance with claim 1, wherein the opening is centrally located in the brim and the brim is dished upwardlyto the opening, and the crown is pot-shaped and its lower edge engages the upper surface of the 

